Devonte’ Graham and the Spurs stun the Nuggets

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Devonte’ Graham transformed a floater within the lane with 0.9 seconds remaining, and the San Antonio Spurs handed Western Convention-leading Denver a probably damaging loss, rallying from 23 factors right down to beat the Nuggets 121-120 on Friday night time.

The Nuggets (56-25) fell out of sole possession of first place within the West and right into a tie with Oklahoma Metropolis and Minnesota. Due to tiebreakers, the Thunder have been first, the Timberwolves second and the Nuggets third heading into the final day of the common season on Sunday.

Denver had received three straight and was coming off a house victory over Minnesota.

“Yeah, it’s disappointing. I imply, actually disappointing,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone mentioned. “We managed our personal future and what we achieved on Wednesday night time, we simply gave it proper again. You understand what I imply? So, it’s straightforward to rise up for Minnesota. I imply, our guys have been locked in, they have been targeted, they have been critical. And I don’t suppose we had the identical strategy for tonight’s recreation, however you had an opportunity to get to the one seed and now, clearly, we’ll possible be the three seed on the finish of the day.”

Victor Wembanyama had 34 factors and 12 rebounds for the short-handed Spurs, who’re final within the West.

Wembanyama slammed the ball onto the courtroom and screamed in celebration after what he later referred to as “perhaps the largest win of the season.”

“It simply makes each win really feel much more particular,” Wembanyama mentioned. “As a rising group, a younger group, it’s huge for us. We’re going to want these form of wins sooner or later.”

Jamal Murray had 35 factors and Nikola Jokic had 22 factors and 12 rebounds for Denver, which led 76-53 early within the third quarter and nonetheless had a 17-point benefit early within the fourth.

Graham, who completed with 11 factors, obtained the Spurs inside one on a layup with 30.3 seconds left. Jokic missed a 17-footer with 9 seconds remaining to arrange Graham’s game-winner.

Sandro Mamukelashvili scored a season-high 21 factors and had 12 rebounds for the Spurs (21-60), who averted matching the worst report in franchise historical past (20-62 in 1997).

The Spurs have been with out Devin Vassell, Jeremy Sochan, Keldon Johnson, Malaki Branham and Cedi Osman however nonetheless outscored the defending NBA champion Nuggets 34-20 within the fourth quarter.

The accidents have led to extra taking part in time for Graham, who had performed in solely 10 video games by February.

“That was nice for him and nice for all of us to see that for him,” Wembanyama mentioned.

San Antonio lower into Denver’s huge leads with a 16-4 run within the third — capped by a 3 from Wembanyama — and a 14-2 burst within the fourth that Mamukelashvili completed with a driving layup.

“We have been down 23 and we got here again, and I really feel like at that time you don’t need to let it up and also you go full steam,” Mamukelashvili mentioned. “So blissful we obtained the win.”

The Nuggets missed six of their remaining seven photographs, scoring their remaining factors on Aaron Gordon’s layup with 1:19 left.

Gordon performed bodily protection in opposition to Wembanyama, knocking the 7-foot-3 rookie to the courtroom previous to an inbounds within the first half. No foul was referred to as. A annoyed Wembanyama was later referred to as for his second technical foul of the season.

“You understand what motivated me, when he fell on the ground and Gordon was him,” Mamukelashvili mentioned. “If I used to be on the courtroom, I’d get a tech. I’m telling you proper now. I used to be blissful I used to be sitting on the bench, and I didn’t go on the courtroom as a result of that’s $25,000 that I don’t have.”

Up subsequent

Nuggets: At Memphis on Sunday night time.

Spurs: Host Detroit on Sunday night time.